Thomas von Woedtke, Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology, Germany“for their pioneering work in the field of plasma medicine”.

The 2016 EPS Plasma Physics Division PhD Research Award goes to

Bastien Bruneau (LPICM, France) for his PhD thesis on the “control of radio frequency capacitively coupled plasma asymmetries using Tailored Voltage Waveforms”,

Arnaud Colaitis (CELIA, France) for his PhD thesis on a “multiscale description of the Laser-Plasma Interaction, application to the physics of shock ignition in Inertial Confinement Fusion” and

Natasha Jeffrey (U. Glasgow, United Kingdom) for her PhD thesis on the “spatial, spectral and polarization properties of solar flare X-ray sources”.

The 2016 APS-EPS Landau Spitzer Award is awarded to

John Berkery (Columbia University, USA),

Steven Sabbagh (Columbia University, USA),

Yueqiang Liu (CCFE, UK), and

Holger Reimerdes (EPFL, CH)

“for their seminal joint research providing key understanding and quantitative verification of global mode stability in experimental high performance tokamak plasmas, based on drift-kinetic MHD theory, and made possible by strong and essential partnership between Europe and the USA”.

The prize ceremony will take place during the annual conference of the Division that will take place in Leuven (Belgium) from 4-7 July 2016. Click here for details about the conference.

The postdeadline submission for the Europhoton 2016 is now open and possible until Friday, July 1st, 08:00 PM (GMT+1, local time on site). Only oral submissions will be accepted.

For postdeadline paper submission, topical information and preliminary program, please visit the offical site of the conference: http://www.europhoton.org

Europhoton 2016 will bring together a multi-disciplinary group of world-renowned researchers and scientists, industrials, and students to discuss the latest breakthroughs in the field. The conference will feature high-quality scientific presentations and invited speakers from a wide range of topics, including:

SOLID STATE LASERS

Keynote Speaker:

Scott Diddams, NIST, USA

Advances in optical frequency combs and their applications

Invited Speakers:

Dietmar Kracht, Lazerzentrum Hannover, Germany

High-power single-mode cw lasers for gravitational wave detection

Xavier Délen, Institute of Optics, France

High-power single-crystal fiber amplifiers

Guina Mircea, Tampere University, Finland

Progress in development of gain and saturable absorber mirrors for semiconductor disc lasers

The prize is awarded every 2 years by the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society for outstanding achievement in condensed matter physics.

The European Physical Society Condensed Matter Division is proud to announce that the 2016 EPS CMD Europhysics Prize is awarded to

Peter Böni

Aleksandr N. Bogdanov

Christian Pfleiderer

Achim Rosch

Ashvin Vishwanath

“for the theoretical prediction, the experimental discovery and the theoretical analysis of a magnetic skyrmion phase in MnSi, a new state of matter.”

Discovery of a Skyrmion Phase in MnSi

Initially proposed as a model for hadrons in a mesonic field theory in particle physics, skyrmions have recently been discovered in magnetic systems thus establishing the existence of a new state of matter. Such structures exhibit a topological Hall effect and can be moved by currents much smaller than those required to displace domain walls thus opening the door to applications in data storage.

This nomination is in support of an exemplary collaboration of both theoretical and experimental groups on a most intriguing magnetic state of topological nature: a magnetic skyrmion crystal. In the remarkable pioneering studies by the nominees, this state was first proposed theoretically and subsequently discovered by neutron scattering in MnSi and its features have been impressively analyzed theoretically.

Magnetic skyrmions are spin textures on length scales of tens of nanometers that behave like particles. Similar to a vortex in a superconductor, a skyrmion cannot be unwound without creating discontinuities. This topological stability is reflected by a nonzero topological index also known as the skyrmion number.

Prior to the theoretical work by A.N. Bogdanov and co-workers [1, 2], conventional wisdom stated that skyrmions cannot spontaneously form as ground states in magnetic materials. It thus came as a considerable surprise that these authors were able to demonstrate that skyrmion lattices may spontaneously form in noncentrosymmetric magnetic systems if longitudinal fluctuations of the magnetization are facilitated. MnSi was proposed as one of the suitable candidates for such a scenario as it exhibited strong longitudinal magnetization fluctuations and the absence of a centre of inversion may result in a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya contribution to the Hamiltonian.

Independently of these authors, A. Vishwanath and co-workers [3] theoretically proposed the existence of a “helical spin crystal” in MnSi, motivated by its enigmatic high-pressure phase. These authors also showed that the resulting skyrmion spin crystal can be interpreted as a multimode superposition of helical spin spirals. In subsequent work, Vishwanath and co-author also predicted the existence of a topological Hall effect resulting from a fixed phase relationship of these spin spirals, a phenomenon which has subsequently been verified in Ref. [4].

These theoretical proposals were taken up by a team around C. Pfleiderer, P. Böni, and A. Rosch, building on their respective expertise in transport properties of unconventional phases in MnSi, neutron scattering on noncollinearly ordered magnetic systems, and the provision of visionary theoretical support. Resulting from this combined expertise, the team was able to identify and theoretically explain the novel skyrmion phase in MnSi. The first experimental evidence for the existence of a skyrmion crystal in MnSi was provided by small angle neutron scattering (SANS) [5]. The SANS diffraction pattern was consistent with a hexagonal skyrmion lattice which was interpreted as a triple wavevector state. While prior theoretical work suggested the exclusive stability of a conical helical state in a field, the authors demonstrated within a sophisticated theoretical analysis in Ref. [5] that the thermodynamic fluctuations around the skyrmion crystal were fundamental in stabilizing the observed skyrmion crystal.

While highly suggestive of a skyrmion crystal, the SANS results did not yet unambiguously prove a fixed phase relationship between the spin spirals. To settle this issue, C. Pfleiderer, P. Böni, A. Rosch and co- workers investigated the Hall effect in Ref [4]. The observed Hall resistivity showed an additional contribution, in quantitative agreement with a Berry-phase induced emergent magnetic field originating from the nonvanishing skyrmion number of the topologically nontrivial skyrmion lattice.

Finally, C. Pfleiderer, P. Böni, A. Rosch and co-workers demonstrated that skyrmions can be manipulated similarly to other magnetic topological defects such as domain walls. Applying currents that were more than five orders of magnitude weaker than those used in similar experiments on domain walls, the authors observed a distinct rotation of the skyrmion lattice. This demonstrates the extraordinarily weak pinning of the skyrmion lattice and opens the door to manipulation of skyrmions in related systems.

This unique effort led by this group of theorists and experimentalists has resulted in the identification of a new state of matter that has literally created a “skyrmion-boom” in the condensed matter community. Not only have skyrmions also been identified in a larger class of systems, but also explicit proposals emerged to use skyrmions instead of domain walls for racetrack-type memory technologies. It is testament to the excellent work by P. Böni, A.N. Bogdanov, C. Pfleiderer, A. Rosch, A. Vishwanath that skyrmions have become such an exciting field of current research and they highly deserve the EPS CMD Europhysics Prize 2016.

"for his developments and applications of effective field theories in hadron and nuclear physics, that allowed for systematic and precise investigations of the structure and dynamics of nucleons and nuclei based on Quantum Chromodynamics."

The prize consists of a Medal, a Diploma with the above citation, in addition to a cash award.

The Lise Meitner Prize is sponsored by:

The Karin and Carlo Giersch Foundation

The KVI Centre for Advanced Radiation Technology, Groningen

The Nuclear Physics Institute Research Centre, Jülich

The Institute of Nuclear Physics, Orsay

The GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt

The 3rd European Nuclear Physics Conference, Groningen, 2015.

The prize medal and the diploma will be presented to Prof. Meißner at a scientific meeting on Advances in Effective Field Theories to be held in Jülich later in the year.

More information about the Lise Meitner Prize and the EPS Nuclear Physics Division can be found on the division's website.

Luc Bergé, French Commission for Atomic Energy, CEA, Paris, FRFor his outstanding theoretical contributions to the wave propagation in nonlinear media and for his service to the European Physical Society.

Eberhard Bodenschatz, Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization Göttingen, DEFor contributions to the dynamics of pattern formation, thermal convection and in particular to Lagrangian turbulence, as Editor in Chief of the New Journal of Physics, and his role promoting opportunities for European researchers.

Reinhard Brinkmann DESY Hamburg, DEFor his outstanding leadership and achievements in accelerator physics and technology, including ground-breaking solutions for modern free-electron lasers and linear colliders based on super-conducting accelerator technology and the success of longitudinally polarized electron beams in the HERA collider.

Sydney Galès, Institut de Physique Nucléaire, Orsay, FRFor his decisive contributions to the strategic roadmaps taken on national and international level with regard to the important orientations related to the physics of the nucleus, and to the associated accelerator and instruments technologies.

Victor Malka, Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée Palaiseau, FRFor his major contributions for the development of compact laser-plasma accelerators, and for their innovative applications for science (ultra fast phenomena, accelerators physics) and society (medicine, radiobiology, chemistry and material science).

Karlheinz Meier, Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, Univerity of Heidelberg, DEFor substantial service to the particle physics community, exceptional contributions in bringing physics to bear in other disciplines, especially neuromorphic computing, and his commitment to inspire young scientists.

The 7th EPS-QEOD EUROPHOTON CONFERENCE on "Solid-State, Fibre, and Waveguide Coherent Light Sources" will take place from 21 - 26 August 2016 in Vienna, Austria. The call for papers is now available on line.

The deadline for abstract and summary submission is 21 April 2016 (a 50-word abstract and a one page summary in pdf format).

The Conference programme includes:

a two-days Summer School on "Frontiers of Solid State Light Sources"

the main Conference on "Solid-State Lasers & Fibre and Waveguide Devices"

a half-day Special Symposium on "Novel Laser-matter Interaction Regimes"

a Table-top Exhibit for Laser and Photonics related companies increasing their visibility and promoting their new products among attendees.

The conference is organised by the Technical University of Vienna and the European Physical Society [EPS] in cooperation with its Quantum Electronics and Optics Division [QEOD].

Nominations are now open for the Edison Volta Prize of the European Physical Society [EPS]. The award – intended to promote excellence in research – will be given in recognition of outstanding research and achievements in physics.

The EPS Edison Volta Prize is given biennially to individuals or groups of up to three people. The award consists of a diploma, a medal, and €10,000 in prize money.